We visited the Doi SuthepTemple which sits on the mountain over looking Chiang Mai.

The story goes that a sacred white elephant was walking around the north of Thailand with a Statue of a Buddha on it’s back, upon realizing it was coming to the end of it’s life, it found a quiet place to lay down and die.
The monks were so moved that they built a temple here and have ever since been here, it’s beautiful! Maddi in particular was excited to visit this one, as we had seem pictures before we left home which showed two ornate serpents decorated in gold and jewels that winds themselves way up the 300 stairs to the Temple.

Not a problem for us Aussies who are used to bounding up the steps to the Byron lighthouse but we did pass some rather larger German tourists who appeared to be a bit worse for wear.
I really shouldn’t slag them off as Kylie and I have taken quite nicely to the Singa (local) beer which is served in two sizes, small which seem much smaller than home, or big, similar to the big bot size back home which could end up being the names people call our behinds if we keep knocking them down the way we have been.

Anyway the Temple is beautiful, perched high above Chiang Mai in the mountains with a dazzling array of Buddha’s, serpents, dragons, elephants and gold leaf everywhere, however the most amazing experience happened in the shrine that sits on either side of the temple housing two Buddhist monks.
When entering the shrine to pay respect to the gold Buddha, you must enter on your knees and crawl across the floor. As we decide to go in and make our way across to the Monk, the shrine clears of tourists and locals alike and we are the only ones in there.

We bow in front of the statue then make our way to the Monks, as we have seen others do before us. However the Monk starts to chant so we bow our heads and feel the splash of water on our heads as he continues our blessing.
Kyles and I are terrified that Jett would put up a protest, yet he just stays there with his head bowed whilst the water throwing and chanting continues for quite some time. We are then offered wrist bands for good luck. Kylie and I were very moved by this experience, it was nothing short of awesome!!

Later that night we needed the blessing as we managed to find either the fastest (or craziest) tuk tuk driver in Thailand, talk about fly, from the moment we sat in the back it was on for young and old, the young being Maddi & Jett cheering this lunatic on and the suddenly old, being Kylie & I wondering if this was the way our journey would end!! Needless to say the blessing worked and the near misses stayed just near misses and we survived yet again, even after tearing straight through a red light into the traffic which suddenly opened, giving us a clear path to continue homewards.